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Dream (VTM)
"The Dream" was a Cainite utopia of enlightenment and learning shepherded by a cabal of long-lost methuselahs – it took root in Constantinople over a millennium ago. Overview When Christianity became an influential religion, the methuselah Beshter adopted it and renamed himself Michael, after the Archangel Michael. By the time Rome was falling from grace, he left it with Antonius and the Dracon to build their own Cainite utopia in Byzance. Initially, Antonius was the Father figure of their Trinity, Dracon was the Holy Ghost and Michael was the Son. Thus the Dream was born. These three methuselahs were lovers and allies for centuries before the emperor Constantine arrived to show them the way. To them, this devout and predatory ruler embodied the virtues and sins of their kind. Following his example, the Triumvirate set residence in the city determined to build a perfect and lasting civilization. Their utopia endured for nearly a thousand years, and much of the Byzantine era revolves around the relationships between these vampires and their families. However, as it was predicted by Constancia of Erciyes, the Dream had to die. As it is ever the case with the Kindred, the Dream spurned loves and malicious treacheries conspired to lay low the Dream. Antonius was mad with jealousy over the relationship of Michael and the Dracon and eventually was put down by his own childer. With his death, Michael became The Patriarch and Antonius' childer assumed the role of The Son. Dracon however, grew disheartened by the execution of Antonius and eventually left the city. Things only worsened from there, as the Inconnu and the Lasombra Narses did everything in their power to undermine Constantinople. The ultimate betrayal, however, came when its primary caretaker fell to foul diablerie at the fangs of Mary the Black, during the Fourth Crusade. Since then, the ragged banner of the Dream has persisted in one form or another in the hands of would-be successors (like the Nosferatu Malachite), but none with the glory of its original champion. For Michael, the whole of Constantinople was considered the Dream. It was architectural marvel, repository of culture, and social experiment all in one, a recreation of what the mythic cities ruled by Cainites should have been. Unfortunately, the Dream also suffered from Michael's ego. He sought to create a lasting monument to the race of Caine, an artwork not limited to canvas or the stage, but to the fabric of human history. The Tomb of the Patriarch The focal point of Byzantium’s Dream, the , remains a monument to both the ambition and perfidy of the Kindred condition. According to Kindred historians, a replica of the medieval basilica of Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia exists beneath the “true” Hagia Sophia, standing silent testament to the patriarch’s ambition for the Dream. Some Byzantine elders still regard the Tomb of the Patriarch as a great spiritual landmark, and Kindred of all clans have safeguarded its legacy since the fall of its progenitor. Indeed, scholarly Kindred regard the Tomb of the Patriarch as a treasure of the Damned on the order of the , holding both verifiable history and clues to the prophesied fate of the Damned. The academic riches of this ancient haven are difficult to access, however, as feuding factions of Kindred still war over the right to its legacy. The Tomb tragically lies at the forbidden center of a hostile entente, with vampires of the mutually suspicious factions choosing to keep the Tomb inaccessible rather than share its intellectual and spiritual bounty among outsiders and the godless. Thus, the Dream is all but broken in the modern nights. Vykos' Dream Before the destruction of Constantinople, the Trinity was shattered. Antonius had been destroyed and, in grief, the Dracon abandoned the city leaving the Patriarch in great distress. Trying to soothe Michael's condition, the Tzimisce Symeon fleshcrafted his young childe, Myca Vykos, into an exact doppelgänger of the departed methuselah, and with the assistance of the Malkavian Gregorius Dimities, they twisted his mind to leave only one thought: that he was the Dracon himself. They sent him into Michael's haven as a gift to please the Patriarch, but from the second they met, Michael knew Vykos for who he was (and used him, nonetheless). Behind that masquerade he saw Myca's boundless thirst and appreciation of knowledge and imbued him with the Dream. He was to become a living record to preserve and emulate Constantinople’s glory in the future. The mind of the young Tzimisce (as well as possibly the connection to its Antediluvian), however, twisted Michael’s resplendent aspirations of Constantinople and fraternity into a vision of empires built with flesh instead of stone and solidarity of blood instead of spirit. This vision drove Vykos to the Anarch Revolt and later to the Sabbat, seeking to use it to construct its warped version of Michael's Dream out of harvested flesh and stolen blood. To this end, Vykos focuses to recapture the lessons of the previous Dream, lest they are lost forever. References * * * * Category:Vampire: The Dark Ages glossary